You Can’t be Michael Jordan at Everything

When is the last time you sat in a staff meeting that was literally life-giving? Personally and spiritually nourishing? Today at the South Bay Church all staff meeting pastor Andy opened the time with a devotional thought from his personal life that he wanted to share with us as a team. He talked about discouragement and was super honest about his own life, that he feels discouraged quite often and even at times feels crazy. It was so normalizing and so healthy for us as a team to discuss these things in the open. The enemy can really do some damage in your mind, so its great to talk things out in the open and share things that you’re dealing with.

Andy had several thoughts today that really spoke to me. I’ll share them with you . . .

Don’t put a yoke on yourself that Jesus isn’t putting on you. Often we place goals/expectations on ourself for whatever reason that adds to the pressure we feel on a daily basis. We can live in the freedom given to us through Jesus. His yoke is easy and his burden is light. -Matt 11:28-30.

We compare our behind the scenes with the highlight reel of other people’s lives. I am notorious for this. Inside, I am always measuring myself with others who challenge me. How much time they spend in prayer, how early they are up in the morning, how much they work out, how many healthy meals they provide for their family. I can get carried away in a persona of someone that really is only about 10% of their reality.

Every person has days when they gain ground, hold ground, and lose ground. Its ok to have a bad day . . . the key is bouncing back from those bad days to make tomorrow better.

You can’t be Michael Jordan at everything. You can be the best in your field and spend 75 hours at your job every week but you probably aren’t spending enough time with your kids. You can be really great home decorator and be a famous “pinner” (pinterest reference) but you probably aren’t engaged with your spouse emotionally like you could be. You can work out like 3 hours every morning but there are probably aspects of your job that are suffering. The point is there will always be tension between what we want to achieve and what is reality for us. We need to prioritize what is important and be willing to be mediocre at the things that don’t matter as much.

I just wanted to take a minute to jot these down, if nothing else, for my own benefit down the road. It is so good to be reminded of these things and to feel normal!!